Expert: Flesh-Eating ‘Zombie’ Drug Not Likely Coming to St. Louis

ST. LOUIS, Mo. (KMOX) – So far the so-called “flesh eating zombie” drug has not showed up in the St. Louis area, although at least five people in Joliet, Illinois, were hospitalized over the weekend suffering from symptoms of using this dangerous opioid.

It’s called Krokodil — an extremely addictive form of heroin that can be easily cooked up in someone’s home like meth.

“It’s basically homemade heroin made with substances, like gasoline and paint thinner,” Dan Duncan with the local office of the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse said.

The drug first spread across Russia and the Ukraine in 2011. It has now made it to our shores and is being seen in Utah, Arizona, Oklahoma and Chicago.

Duncan said the homemade heroin got its name, Krokodil from what it does to users’ skin.

“Especially at an injection site, [it can] make the skin turn green and scaly,” Duncan explained. “There’s been some hideous reports how it will eat skin right to the bone and people have lost fingers and limbs.”

He doubts it will catch on in St. Louis because he says, sadly, it doesn’t cost much to buy good quality heroin these days.